A conviction that thinking equates with doing. Occurs in dreams in children, in primitive peoples, and in patients under a variety of conditions. Characterized by lack of realistic relationship between cause and effect.

RELATED TERMS--------------------------------------

DreamsThoughts, visions, and other sensations that occupy the mind in sleep. Dreams occur during that part of sleep when there are rapid eye movements (REMs). We have 3 to 5 periods of REM sleep per night. They usually come at intervals of 1-2 hours and are quite variable in length. An episode of REM sleep may be brief and last but 5 minutes. Or it may be much longer and go for over an hour. About 20% of sleep is REM sleep. If you sleep 7-8 hours a night, perhaps an hour and half of that time, 90 minutes, is REM sleep. REM sleep is characterized by a number of other features besides REM, including rapid, low-voltage brain waves on the electroencephalographic (EEG) recording, irregular breathing and irregular heart rate and -- what may be most evident to someone else -- involuntary muscle jerks. Non-REM (NREM) sleep is dreamless sleep. During NREM, the brain waves on the EEG are typically slow and of high voltage, the breathing and heart rate are both slow and regular, the blood pressure is low, and the sleeper is relatively still. NREM sleep is divided into 4 stages of increasing depth. About 80% of sleep is NREM sleep. If you sleep 7-8 hours a night, all but maybe an hour and a half is spent in dreamless NREM sleep. Dreams are penetrable; it has been found experimentally that one can communicate with a person who is dreaming.

PrimitiveUndeveloped or in early stages of development, undifferentiated.

Morphologic diagnosisThe interpretation of the abnormalities in terms of severity, time, lesion and anatomic site. For example: severe, chronic, glomerulonephritis.

MucousAdj. Relating to or resembling mucus.

MyelinThe lipid substance forming a sheath around the axons of certain nerve fibers.

MyxedemaMucinous edema (swelling).

MacropsiaThe visual perception that objects are larger than they actually are.

Magical thinking

Manifest contentThe remembered content of a dream or fantasy, as contrasted with latent content, which is concealed and distorted.

Memory consolidationThe physical and psychological changes that take place as the brain organizes and restructures information that may become a permanent part of memory.

MHPG3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol. A major metabolite of brain norepinephrine excreted in urine.

MicropsiaThe visual perception that objects are smaller than they actually are.

Middle insomniaAwakening in the middle of the night followed by eventually falling back to sleep, but with difficulty.

We thank you for using the Health Dictionary to search for Magical thinking. If you have a better definition for Magical thinking than the one presented here, please let us know by making use of the suggest a term option. This definition of Magical thinking may be disputed by other professionals. Our attempt is to provide easy definitions on Magical thinking and any other medical topic for the public at large.